NIGEL Farage has said he would seek to send prisoners to El Salvador if he became prime minister.
The Reform UK leader said that the Donald Trump-aping policy would cost around £1.25 billion over the course of a five-year parliamentary term.
Farage said that he would be prepared to take back British criminals who are in foreign prisons as part of his plans.
He told reporters at the press conference that “of course we’re prepared to take British prisoners from other parts of the world.
“That’s fair, right and proper.”
Trump has a deal with Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele (below), paying the Central American country billions of dollars to imprison deportees in the country which is unconstrained by US court orders and where human rights abuses and attacks on the democratic process are rampant.
It came as he set out Reform UK’s crime policies, which include a pledge to halve crime in five years if the party gets into government.
Proposals to recruit more police officers and create new prison places contribute to the estimated £3.48bn annual bill for the party’s plans on crime and justice.
Documents handed out at Monday’s press conference show that the party estimate a £17.4bn cost over the course of a five year parliament for their plans.
Plans to recruit 30,000 more police officers take up the biggest chunk of this bill, estimated at £10.5bn overall.
Farage has pledged 12,400 new prison places on Ministry of Defence land at a cost of £5bn, and five new “Nightingale Prisons” to be built with the assistance of the Army.
He also wants to see more than 10,000 more prison places freed up by deporting foreign criminals to their country of origin through bilateral agreements, and Farage claimed he was “in conversation with Edi Rama”, the Albanian prime minister over prisoners.
The two leaders have been involved in a social media spat over the matter.
In a video on social media posted last month, Farage said he would visit Albania and “report back” after an invitation from Rama (above, left).
In response, Rama said: “I genuinely hope your upcoming visit to Albania inspires you to fight for ideas, rather than against people — in the spirit of the great liberal tradition your country has long stood for.”
Labour chairwoman Ellie Reeves claimed “Reform is more interested in headline-chasing than serious policy-making in the interests of the British people”.
She added: “Farage’s Reform MPs voted against the Labour Government’s landmark Crime and Policing Bill which tackles antisocial behaviour, shoplifting, violence against women and girls, knife crime, and child abuse.”
